AUTOS: The Little Two

The auto industry’s Little Two this week brought out the new models that will make them or break them in 1958 —and the Big Three rooted anxiously from the sidelines. No automaker wants either American Motors or Studebaker-Packard to go under; it would inevitably lead to cries of monopoly, and possible trouble with trustbusters. Of the two, American Motors made the more drastic changes.

Instead of trying to compete with the giants all across the board, it hopes to turn a profit by concentrating on the two areas where sales are climbing fastest : the low-medium price field and the small-car market that foreign automakers have rap idly opened up.

Buttons & Fins. In the small-car field, American will bolster its successful line of British-made Metropolitans (sales through August: 8,354, up 78% from last year) by reviving the economy-sized (100-in. wheelbase) Rambler that was dropped in 1955. American will also face lift its regular 108-in. Rambler, give it canted tailfins, a flat roofline, pushbutton transmission and a slight horsepower boost to 215 h.p. in the V-8 model. In the low-medium price bracket. American will produce a third, 117-in. -wheelbase Rambler Ambassador to replace its defunct Nash and Hudson, will give it racier lines than last year’s standard Rambler, and a bigger, 270-h.p. V-8 engine. List prices:

from $1,875 for the small Rambler (up $80) to $2,862 for the new Ambassador station wagon.

Says American Motors President George Romney, who believes that his compact, “commonsense” Ramblers will find a niche for themselves among Detroit’s ever-longer, ever-lower luxury models: “The automobile is no longer the means of satisfying the ego of the American. The consumer is turning to swimming pools and boats and trips to Europe and a lot of other things besides automobiles.”

Springs & Shovels. As for Studebaker-Packard, whose market share is only 1.1% this year, it will still compete model-for-model with Big Three. From the austere, stripped-down Studebaker Scotsman ($1,796) to the handsome, expensive (up to $12,000) Mercedes-Benz line that it distributes in the U.S., the cars show few mechanical or style changes. Most models are about 2 in. lower, offer a “luxury-level ride” incorporating variable coil springs that automatically adjust to road conditions. One new car: a Packard “Hawk” sports car to match Studeba-ker’s Hawk series, with up to 275 h.p.

and a low, shovel-snouted grille. Optimistically, President Harold Churchill predicts that the company will cruise into the black before year’s end. But after viewing the wide range of Champions. Commanders, Hawks, Presidents and Packards, another automan wondered if S-P was still not trying to do too much.

“It looks like a mighty few eggs in a lot of baskets.”